Timeline
Below is a dated chronicle of the history of the city of Haven, as well as the places and peoples that have become tied to it through the ages. As discussed in the article on the Havenic Calendar, events that occurred prior to the founding of Haven are marked as BH (Before Haven) and those that occurred after are marked as HE (Haven Era). Note1: This timeline is the official, canonical record of events in the universe of Haven, and contains information that is not known to those that inhabit this universe. For example, while Haven's scholars may have an accurate historical record going back several thousand years, in most cases they only have theories about ancient events, such as the origination of races, that are based on myths and incomplete archaeological evidence. This record exists to serve players, DMs, and those curious about the universe's lore. Note2: Players who have participated in the events described below may notice various discrepancies regarding chonology, names, details, etc. - creative liberties have been taken to ret-con the lore of this universe to be more cohesive (and in many cases, less explicitly problematic). If you remember an event that should be on this timeline or notice a continuity error, please contact editor Kollapski so that the historical details can be worked out. The Age of Origination * 35,000 BH ** The phulubits reach the coast of Inismona and take to the water. They quickly establish a primitive, tribal civilization on the floor of the Gerrim Sea. * 30,000 BH ** The arachne reach the coast of Inismona. Using their web-weaving skills, they fashion rafts and simple boats from timber along the shores. They sail west and arrive on the Northland, making their home in the Great Forest. * 25,000 BH ** The owlbears reach the coast of Inismona. These primitive owlbears possessed wings, a trait that is a rarity in modern owlbear populations. Using these powerful wings, the owlbears fly west and land on the shores of the Northland. They make their way southwest and settle in the Great Forest. * 20,000 BH ** Packs of wild owlbears in the Great Forest begin to form complex social groups, including the most ancient owlbear clans and tribes. Cooperation and innovation increase, leading to the birth of early owlbear civilization. Owlbear towns and city-states begin to arise and occasionally skirmish with one another, but there are no large-scale conflicts. ** The original, ancestral humans reach the coast of Inismona. They settle on these shores for some time, but overpopulation and resource shortages lead them to seek new lands. On simple sailboats, the humans sail east and land on the shores of Gerrim. The Age of Strife * 19,900 BH ** The westernmost owlbear settlements fight a series of brutal territorial wars with neighboring tribes of arachne. These wars eventually end in a stalemate, as both sides defend their territory too fiercely for the other to gain any ground. * 19,850 BH ** A powerful owlbear named Ascalphus challenges and defeats the king of Omphalos in single combat and becomes the new ruler of the owlbears' largest city-state. His stature, power, and vision lead many to join his side, and he soon gathers an army. Within only a few years, he conquers and unifies all owlbear lands under his rule, thus founding the Owlbear Empire. taking to the sky during his campaign of unification. ]] * 18,000 BH ' ** For nearly 2,000 years following Ascalphus's unification campaign, Owlbear civilization experiences a golden age. Peace reigns, and the Owlbear Empire's territory expands rapidly in all directions as they are finally able to drive back their ancient rivals, the arachne. Great temples are raised honoring the god of the owlbears, Autumno. During this time, Ascalphus's bloodline remains unbroken, with his line inheriting his kingship as well as his name as an allusion to reincarnation. * '''17,700 BH ' ** The owlbears' golden age is abruptly brought to an end by the outbreak of a devastating plague that rips across the land, leaving hundreds of thousands dead. The Ascalphus of this time, unsure on how to respond, is suddenly overcome by whispers and visions. This mysterious presence presents him with a desperate plan: construct a vast hibernal chamber beneath Autumno's greatest temple in Omphalos and allow his people to be put into a long sleep to wait out the disease. Trusting this voice, Ascalphus proceeds, and in a few short months the chamber is finished, and the population of Omphalos and the surrounding cities begin entering their slumber. Ascalphus's brother, however, does not trust these voices that Ascalphus has confessed to hearing. Not wanting to obey some strange outside force, Ascalphus's brother leads a small band of nobles out into the Great Forest. Meanwhile, the doors to the chamber are sealed, and Ascalphus and the owlbears enter their long hibernation. *** In the following years, Ascalphus's brother and his noble allies do not adapt well to life in the forest, and their small society begins to regress both technologically and culturally. The situation eventually deteriorates to the point that the group breaks apart into warring factions, and within several generations the owlbears are reverted to a nearly feral state, identical to their ancient ancestors. *** The voice that the Ascalphus of 17,700 BH was hearing was that of Oorn, one of the higher chaos gods. It is thought that Oorn, reaching through time, both created the owlbear plague and manipulated Ascalphus in order to prepare the owlbears as a weapon to be used against Haven and The Guild in the Great Owlbear War of 20 HE. * '''15,000 BH ** Advances in magical techniques lead wizards among the humans of Gerrim to begin dabbling in the manipulation of souls. A process is discovered by which human souls can be separated from their bodies and used as focal points for the formation of new sentient, elemental forms of life- these become known simply as elementals. This process, referred to as soulforging, is initially viewed by the wizards as a pathway to immortality, but it soon becomes clear that the elementals born from these human souls retain only the faintest traces of their human personalities and memories; for the most part, they are newborn intelligences, unfamiliar with the world. Even more troubling, this process of soulforging does not always work- in many cases, the wizards' test subjects' souls are simply obliterated in a screaming flash, not reincorporated in an elemental form or sent to any afterlife plane. There is a sharp cultural and societal divide between those that see soulforging as the gateway to ascension and those that see it as an existential threat to humanity. A long war breaks out between the powers supporting and opposing soulforging. * 14,900 BH ** The Soulforge is created by a group of humanity's most powerful wizards. This huge, indestructible structure is built above a convergence of ley lines and is fueled by a constant flow of ley energy. Its sole function is to maintain a permanent soulforging cast inside its crucible-like great chamber, to immediately soulforge anyone who would enter. Countless souls are destroyed during its construction and initial experimentation, but the fanatical support of its proponents ensures that there are always enough test subjects. * 14,850 BH ** The Soulforge becomes operational, and the power of the elementals it produces turns the tide of humanity's civil war. The anti-soulforging human groups are driven outward from Gerrim's heartland toward the coasts. *** Two groups of humans depart from Gerrim's west coast, sailing for Inismona, their original homeland they have only heard of in stories handed down across countless generations. **** One group is successful, and human settlements are re-established on Inismona's coasts. Their numbers would never come close to what their population was on Gerrim, due to both Inismona's limited resources and constant attacks from the strange races that inhabit the island's interior. Still, for many thousands of years, these settlements would stand. **** The other group's ships are ravaged by storms, and they are driven far to the south, landing on the harsh, arid island of Bilraqighan. Many do not survive the brutal early years of this unintentional colonization, but with no lumber available there is no way for the survivors to leave. They adapt, learning the ways of this strange desert island, forming the human lineage known as the Bilraqighani. *** A third group of humans, with their numbers including many of humanity's finest warriors, fortify their cities on Gerrim's coasts and entrench themselves for an age-long brutal conflict. * 10,000 BH ** The human faction which struggled for nearly five thousand years against the elementals of Gerrim is finally forced to abandon the last of their strongholds as it is torn asunder by colossal earth and fire elementals. They sail to the southeast, and the first human settlements are created on the island of Surmusra. * 9,900 BH ** The last of the humans still on Gerrim undergo soulforging, and Gerrim becomes a continent occupied entirely by elementals. Without most physical needs to drive them or human influences to motivate them, an atmosphere of great uncertainty settles over the elementals. Ultimately, most of the elementals, especially the larger ones, end up becoming dormant for many millennia. Those that are left rely on their slivers of human memories and their impressions of the last of Gerrim's humans to guide their actions, leading them to found Gerrim City, a sophisticated elemental settlement where creative pursuits eventually become the focus of elemental civilization. * 9,000 BH ''' ** After a thousand years of relative peace and prosperity, overpopulation and resource shortages lead to a vicious war between once-united human clans for control of Surmusra's lush jungles. The clan that would become known as the Xuuluu win this war, forcing the other groups to ascend the sides of the great volcano Fjallokull to eke out a living on its slopes. *** During the fighting, a small faction of Xuuluu object to the clan's actions against those they see as their kin. Their dissension provokes the rest of the clan to turn on them, and they are forced to flee the island of Surmusra. They arrive back on Gerrim where, ironically, they are greeted warmly by the very elementals that their ancestors had fled from. With no remaining memories of humans due to the soulforging process and the passage of time, the elementals of Gerrim City peacefully coexist with this group of Xuuluu, who take up the name Ukuzola to distinguish themselves from the rest of their clan. * '''7,000 BH ** A second clan war breaks out on Surmusra, this time between the groups forced to share the limited resources on Fjallokull's lower slopes. The group that would become the Stelites wins this war, and forces the group that would become the Fjallans into a small band of territory around the rim of the volcano. * 5,000 BH ''' ** On the island of Inismona, despite having survived countless attacks from strange and vicious races from the island interior over thousands of years, the humans living on the island's coasts are finally forced to flee. The reason for this exodus was the appearance of a single, terrifying being capable of reshaping reality at will and reducing thousands of humans to a bubbling puddle of dissolved organs and cellular mush with a slight wave of its single slender arm. This horrifying creature was Cho Prime, the progenitor of the Cho. ** The humans fleeing Inismona sail to the northwest, and arrive on a rugged island known as Winterwheat Isle. The island is cold and frequently struck by storms, but its namesake crop grows in abundance despite the climate. The humans are able to live in peace for a time, but still carry the collective nightmarish memory of Cho Prime. The Age of the Ancients * '''4,000 BH ** The humans of Winterwheat Isle begin to expand outside of their small island home, mostly to the west onto the vast continent known as the Northland. These human settlers build their towns and villages mostly on the eastern coasts and in the foothills of the Winterpeak Mountains, and so have very limited encounters with the arachne tribes and (at this point) feral owlbears dwelling in the Great Forest. * 1,000 BH ** A small and nameless village is settled near the geographic center of the Northland in the shadow of the most central and tallest of the Winterpeak Mountains. Good soil, good lumber, abundant minerals, and a location on top of a convergence of ley lines allow the village to transform into a bustling town in a very short amount of time. Though this specific settlement would not survive the coming years, its location is the site where Haven is eventually founded. * 800 BH ** The exploding human population and sudden abundance of large cities in the Northland attracts the attention of a flight of white dragons who had recently arrived from the north and settled in the Winterpeak Mountains. The white dragons, for reasons of territoriality, disdain for lower beings, as well as simply hunger, unleash a campaign of extermination against the humans of the Northland, destroying many of their cities and decimating their population. These attacks would continue for years, a period of time now remembered as the Years of Slaughter. Noble efforts were made by many human settlements to stop the dragons, but none succeeded. *** The majority of the surviving humans sail east back to Winterwheat Isle, where they are taken in as refugees but initiate an overpopulation crisis among the humans that had already been living there for the past 4,000 years. *** A small subgroup of humans flees southward along the coast of the Northland, attempting to find some home that is out of the dragons' reach. * 799 BH ''' ** The refugee crisis on Winterwheat Isle worsens as the influx of humans fleeing the Northland's white dragons strains the islanders' resources. At the start of the new spring, the elders of the isle invoke a rarely-used old rite from humanity's time on Inismona over four thousand years prior. They command the exile of the old, the sick, and the weak to the only nearby land not watched over by the ravenous white dragons: a small scattering of rocky cold islands to the north known as the Iceblood Islands, a place even less hospitable than Winterwheat Isle. Spring arrives, and the exiled depart, with many separated from friends and family unwilling to make the journey alongside them. * '''798 BH ** The Winterwheat exiles settle on the Iceblood Islands, but are ravaged by their first winter. The vast majority of the exiles are killed by cold or starvation. Those that remain spend years eking out an existence on hardy crops and fish. Occasionally, more exiles arrive, but most are too feeble to survive more than a year or two. All exiles that attempt to return to Winterwheat Isle are forcefully turned away. Miraculously, some children are born on the Iceblood Islands, though many die in their first months of life. A small few are raised into the harsh life demanded by their island home. * 783 BH ** Ingrid Astridsdottir, a young frost giant, begins her Trials in order to earn her place in her village. She is miniscule among frost giants and lacks any trace of their physical strength; many were surprised she had survived through young adulthood at all. As a result of her diminutive stature, she is thoroughly defeated in combat by all of her peers. Though in the trials it is customary to kill those you defeat, each of her opponents in turn took pity and spared her, prompting a rare ritual in which she was stripped of all her claims, inheritance, her family name, and was left abandoned on a remote island to the south of the inhabited icebergs in the Sea of Ice which comprised her people's homeland. Her new name becomes Ingrid the Frail. * 782 BH ** Finn Ivarsson, a teenage son of one of the exile leaders of the Iceblood Islands, begins exploring the northern islands of the archipelago on his own. Finn lies to his parents about how far he travels, as he has been methodically mapping increasingly far away islands. On one of his return journeys, his rowboat is tossed about in a sudden storm and capsizes on rough seas. Finn loses consciousness, but miraculously washes ashore alive and severely hypothermic where he is found by Ingrid the Frail. As Ingrid nurses Finn back to health, a romance gradually blossoms between the two. Finn stays with Ingrid and she teaches him how to better survive the harsh conditions of the northern islands. Finn contemplates returning to his village, but cannot neither bring himself to leave Ingrid nor risk introducing her to his community. He makes the difficult decision to stay for a prolonged time in the northern islands, and is presumed dead by his family and community who lack the resources to search for him. * 780 BH ** After falling deeply in love, Ingrid the Frail and Finn Ivarsson start a family. In the winter, Ingrid gives birth to septuplet sons. Rather than give them in the traditional patronymic fashion, as was typical for both their cultures, the parents decide to name their sons after the site of their birth, a cave in a fjord of immense natural beauty; thus, these seven become the first of the Fjordssons. Were it not for their frost giant blood they would have certainly succumbed to the cold, but their human blood still renders them fairly vulnerable. Ingrid and Finn try their hardest to keep them safe and warm, but between the cold and an illness sustained by Ingrid, they are forced to return to the main Iceblood Island settlement for help. Finn's family and community initially react with fear to Ingrid's presence- though she is puny among her own people, she is the largest person in the settlement by a significant margin. However, for the love of Finn and his new family, the village bands together to help raise the seven children. Eventually, after Ingrid recovers her strength, she proves herself invaluable to the village with her survival skills. * 770 BH ** Through the decades following the Years of Slaughter, the contingent of Northlanders that had decided to flee south (instead of east to Winterwheat Isle) goes through a series of short-lived settlement efforts thwarted by dragon attacks in the north and owlbear attacks in the south. They continue to flee southward along the eastern coast of the Northland, eventually arriving at a small, desert-like isthmus connecting the Northland to a large southern continent known as Zonia. The jungles of Zonia prove far too dangerous to settle, and the presence of owlbears to the north makes retreating impossible. Thus, these humans built their settlements on the isthmus between the two continents. Over the years, this settlement and the surrounding region would become known as Cruzando, and its people would develop a language, culture, and human lineage distinct from other humans. These people would call themselves the Cruzadores. * 200 BH ** The original seven Fjordsson brothers, along with their seven septuplet younger sisters, marry into the families of the Iceblood Islands' human population, and over many generations the islands' entire population becomes comprised of humans with frost giant ancestry. Their inheritance from Ingrid the Frail becomes less pronounced with each generation, but certain traits remain. Around this time, the people of the Iceblood Islands all identify as Fjordssons, the name they choose for their new collective lineage of humanity. They venerate Ingrid and Finn as their demigod ancestors, they are 1-2 feet taller than the average human, have icy blue eyes and blond-to-white hair, and have mastered survival in their icy domain. Many of them adopt the frost giant custom of taking titles in place of their surname upon reaching adulthood. Additionally, their frost giant heritage grants potent magical proficiency to a small few individuals. Eventually, the idea of reclaiming the Northland arises; Winterwheat forces had tried and failed horribly many times over the years, but the Fjordssons believed themselves to be far more competent. Led by a warrior known as Yngvar the Fearless, the Fjordssons mustered a dragon-slaying force and set out for the Northland. * 150 BH ''' ** After fifty years of raids, including one resulting in Yngvar's death, the Fjordssons manage to drive the white dragons out of the Northland and begin settling in the hills just south of the Winterpeak Mountains. While initially reluctant, they allow the humans of Winterwheat Isle to settle as well, with the exception of the ruling elders and their families, as punishment for their exile of the Fjordssons' ancestors in ages past. A powerful Fjordsson wizard known as Torold the Stern, one of the most outspoken opponents of any Winterwheat re-settlement, only agrees to this punishment under the condition that he may curse every member of the Winterwheat ruling families. Some Fjordssons agree immediately to this proposal while others only agree reluctantly after considering how much they need Torold's abilities. They allow Torold to perform his curses, but speak as little of it as possible to the greater public. Thus, from this point on, if someone of elder Winterwheat blood travels more than 100 meters from the shores of Winterwheat Isle, they are stricken with a debilitating disease of violent vomiting, dysentery, fever, and internal bleeding that will kill a healthy adult in one hour; the only cure is to consume soil from Winterwheat Isle. The curse, cruelly, also introduced a strong hereditary birthmark into these bloodlines in the shape of the word "WEAK," scrawled out in distorted Fjordsson runes across the faces of all those bearing the curse. From this time forward, Torold the Stern loses much of his public support due to the extreme nature of the curse, and the public renames him Torold the Cruel. * '''100 BH ** For the Fjordssons now resettled on the Northland, several decades of peace pass as towns begin to grow across the rolling hills and valleys. Without warning, a colossal white dragon known as Inexorus descends from the Winterpeak Mountains and razes many of the Fjordsson towns in a single day, not eating any of the humans or their livestock and seemingly acting out of rage alone. Every day for a week Inexorus descends and claims hundreds of lives, with the Fjordssons' counterattacks seeming to have little effect despite their success against the white dragons of years past. Talk ensues of fleeing back to the sea, but the leaders quickly resolve that this time they will win or die. A man by the name of Bjornolf the Bold proposes a plan to ascent the Winterpeaks, locate Inexorus's lair, wait in hiding, and then kill the dragon in a confined space in his sleep. He is ridiculed by many, and finds only four allies: Rorik the Mad, Siv the Shadow, Yngvild the Vigilant, and Torunn the Cold (the daughter of Torold the Cruel). Together, these five develop their scheme and act the next day. The rest of the leaders and community begin to criticize them saying that they are seeking death, and so their party is referred to as the Deadmen by the rest of the public. They execute their plan and, stunningly, it succeeds; they successfully ambush Inexorus in the dead of night and a fight ensues, but the dragon is ultimately slain in the close quarters of his cave lair. *** Unbeknownst to the rest of the party, the reason for their victory was a curse spell cast by Torunn the Cold which condensed all the luck and fortune of all the party members' lives and their descendants' lives down into that single fight, which allowed them to accomplish the impossible feat of slaying Inexorus, the demigod leader of the white dragons with relative ease in his own lair. They would be welcomed back as heroes and honored for all time, but for centuries each of them and their descendants would be beset by personal disasters, tragedies, and early, often violent deaths. Eventually, this was noticed by the public, and it was assumed to be a curse put on them by Inexorus. Partly because of the curse, and partly because of the name they bore at the dubious start of their quest, the party continues to be referred to as the Deadmen. Torunn fully believed in what she did, and for many years had no qualms. However, in the future her conviction would waver when dealing with her party member Bjornolf's descendants. * 90 BH ** As the human population on the Northland grows, there is a growing need for consolidation of power and a leader. Many come forward with various claims to the title of King, but ultimately Bjornolf the Bold of the Deadmen is selected despite him not making any claims of his own; he is nominated by Torunn the Cold and Yngvild the Vigilant, the only two other surviving members of the Deadmen (Rorik the Mad died in 95 BH of a tiny cut which became gravely infected, Siv the Shadow died in 94 BH in a freak accident in which she was crushed by a falling tree). The nomination of Bjornolf for King is met with roaring approval, and so Bjornolf of the Deadmen is crowned King, with all of the Fjordsson and now-integrated Winterwheat humans bending the knee in fealty. * 80 BH ''' ** Over the next ten years, King Bjornolf governs well and leads the humans of the Northland to prosperity, but his own life is miserable; he is frequently struck with acute illnesses and struggles to mask his pain, his physical prowess deteriorates as if he were 30 years older than his true age, and nearly every woman he courts dies within months as a result of freak accidents (the effects of the Curse of the Deadmen). Eventually he falls in love with a young maiden named Ranveig the Red and they are married. Shortly after they marry, Bjornolf dies from a heart attack at the age of 38. Soon after Bjornolf's passing, Ranveig learns that she is pregnant with his child. During this tumultuous time, she is crowned Queen and becomes the Northlanders' second monarch. Sadly, her reign lasts only the length of her pregnancy, as she dies unexpectedly in childbirth; the new heir to the throne, Mikkel, is born. After this tragic sequence of events, the nature of the curse is more apparent than ever to the public, and its name is attached to Mikkel; he becomes known as Mikkel Deadman. * '''64 BH ** Mikkel is now 16 years old and is officially crowned as King, the third monarch of the Northland humans. Throughout his life, many attempts are made to try to lift the curse but the magic, originally cast by Torunn the Cold, proves too strong. Torunn is terrified that in their attempts, the mages will realize that the curse originated from her, not the white dragon demigod Inexorus, as the public believes. Desperate, Torunn makes repeated attempts on Mikkel's life throughout his childhood and into his adolescence, but no matter how hard she tries, her blade will not pierce him and her spells fail. However, when she makes a deliberately light cut or casts a weakened spell, she succeeds in wounding him, causing the child tremendous pain. She realizes that in crafting her curse, she drew upon the luck of hundreds of future generations of Bjornolf's bloodline, and so Mikkel is immune to any harm that would be outright fatal, as the bloodline must continue. Mikkel survives in a life plagued by injuries and illnesses, but tries his best to govern his people. * 60 BH ** Mikkel travels to a new residence at the advice of one of his mages, as they have discovered a confluence of ley lines at this location. This mage believes that this immense source of raw magical energy may disrupt the effects of the curse, or at least allow the mages more power to attempt to lift the curse. The curse is not able to lifted, but its effects are lessened. Mikkel relocates his government to this more remote town (a tiny settlement bearing the name Leyhollow), much to the annoyance of the nobility. Mikkel's leadership abilities lessen as he is distracted by trying to enjoy his new, relatively pleasant life. * 20 BH ** Decades pass and Mikkel Deadman spends most of his time drinking, hunting, and bedding women. The King's power declines and the nobles from the major Northland human settlements form a de facto oligarchy to rule the domain of humanity in his absence. The human settlements begin to interact more as a loose network of city states than a unified kingdom. They being to develop into distinct entities, and without a central governing body the humans begin to lose their political cohesion. Small skirmishes break out over trade disagreements, and bloody battles are waged for control of land and resources. At age 40, Mikkel finally marries, wedding the maiden Freya the Fair. They have a son who Mikkel names after himself, Mikkel Deadman II. Never having had parents, Mikkel I does not know how to raise Mikkel II, and he makes no attempt to learn. Freya is left to do nearly all of the parenting, and Mikkel I devolves back into alcoholism. * 15 BH ** When Mikkel II is only five years old, his father Mikkel I dies of liver failure while blackout drunk in a bar. His widow, Freya the Fair, ascends to the throne as Queen Freya, the fourth monarch of the Northland humans. Mikkel II grows up filled with hatred for his father, a flame fanned by his mother who had also grown to despise him after he had regressed to his old ways. Mikkel II vows to be nothing like Mikkel I. While Queen Freya attends to the difficult business of holding the increasingly divided human kingdoms together, Mikkel II is raised largely by a council of advisors, among which is Torunn the Cold, who has kept her youth through draining the futures of unknowing innocents; she is now 105 years old but appears roughly 25. After seeing so many die from her curses, she begins to feel a sense of responsibility to at least preserve the human kingdom that was founded on her darkest and greatest curse. The Age of Haven * 1 HE ** Mikkel II turns 16 years old and is crowned King, becoming the fifth monarch of the Northland humans. He begins a campaign to reunify the increasingly fragmented human kingdom, beginning with a declaration that the growing town of Leyhollow will be renamed to Haven, and that it will be the new capital of all human lands, and that all lords must literally bend the knee to him in Haven either in person or via a chosen representative. Upset at the new authority disrupting their autonomy, many of the city states refuse to comply, and an attempt is made on Mikkel II's life by poisoning of his food. Due to the nature of his curse, Mikkel II survives after suffering through several days of gruesome illness, but his mother Freya succumbs to the poison. Mikkel II is hungry for vengeance but his council stops him from initiating a war, as Haven at this time is one of the smallest and militarily weakest human domains. Mikkel II dispatches messengers to his few potential allies among the nobles to the east and the smaller settlements to the west, seeking any aid he can rally to his side. One of these messages would find itself in the hands of an eclectic traveler named Master Whittington, a recently-arrived human explorer from a distant land who had been unaware that there were other humans on the Northland at this point. Accompanied by his bodyguard and servant Quincy, this man was both a scout and leader within a powerful collective simply known as The Guild. *** Master Whittington and Quincy secretly investigate the legitimacy of Mikkel II's claim, and decide to travel to Haven to extend to him an offer: The Guild will win him his civil war, but in return The Guild must be granted a massive piece of land high in the Winterpeak Mountains to construct a new base of operations. Mikkel II is suspicious of this offer, but with few other choices, he is forced to accept. Mikkel II is simply told that all will be taken care of in due time. The very next day, an armada of colossal, armored Guild airships blacken the entire sky and descend upon the rebellious human cities. Shout spells from Guild mages boom the message: submit to Haven or suffer ruination. Warning shots are fired, rogue nobles are rounded up, and the war ends in a day with minimal casualties. Master Whittington helps Mikkel II to appoint new leaders to head each of the cities, and says that he would return periodically to keep in touch an provide support. The Guild airships retreat as quickly as they had arrived, although in the years that would follow they could be spotted on clear days clustered around the summits of the Winterpeak Mountains. * 5 HE ** The Northland human cities, now reunified, bring enough mutual gain to each other through trade that most of the unhappy cities lose their rebellious spirit. Haven outpaces all of them in its surging growth; the quality and quantity of its natural resources seems impossibly high, with crop yields being more than double than elsewhere in the Northland. This is attributed by experts to Haven's location on top of the massive ley line intersection that was the namesake for the town Haven originated from, Leyhollow. Rumors of this magical land spread and humans begin flocking toward Haven. Even human fertility seems to be increased, with families producing twins and triplets at a high rate. The population booms, illnesses are rare, and peacetime is enjoyed by all. *** Meanwhile, Torunn the Cold continues to serve on the royal council to guide Mikkel II; secretly, Torunn had always harbored a deep unrequited love for Bjornolf the Bold, and in Mikkel II, she begins to see everything that made Bjornolf the man he was, from his physical features to his confidence and bravery. However, with Mikkel II this confidence seemed real and resilient, as opposed to Bjornolf's more bold and foolhardy variety. After 125 years of life, Mikkel II becomes the first man that Torunn begins making small advances on. Mikkel II is slow to recognize thse, as he had known Torunn since he was young, and she had always been a matronly figure in his life. Torunn herself is deeply conflicted as she continues to work through these feelings, as she knew that even though no incidents had occurred recently, Mikkel II was marked with her curse and one day he would die horribly because of her actions she had taken in the struggle to kill Inexorus. Torunn begins seeking a way to repay the immense debt of fortune that the curse had created; to somehow equalize the fate of the Deadman blood line and prevent future tragedies. With the weight of many dead friends and innocents on her soul, she wondered: How would she make this happen without harming innocent bystanders? Who would willingly swear their lives in service to preserving the King? And then, one day while listening to the other members of the council talk about shoring up Haven's defenses in anticipation of further attacks in an ongoing series of feral owlbear incursions, it struck her: the Haven Guard were a freshly created elite group who were required to devote their lives to the preservation of the city and their King. Torunn maneuvered her way into the talks on how to expand the Guard, and through careful negotiating she she persuaded the council to allow her to revise the official oath of the Guard; she claimed that she wanted to ensure that the oath matched the old traditions of the Fjordssons in its language. Through manipulation of the wording of the oath, she created an arcane system that would result in the future luck and fortune of the lives of Haven Guardsmen to flow directly to Mikkel II to sustain him. * 10 HE ** Haven continues to flourish, and Mikkel II is well-loved by his people and his new bride, Torunn. Those who know about Torunn's long, guarded past murmur about the nature of the royal union, but in general the peace of the time is enough to allow people to turn a blind eye to the potential scandal. The only thing disrupting the the everyday peace of Haven is either the occasional explosion from up in the Winterpeaks (always quickly followed by hand-delivery of a formal apology message from The Guild, written by Quincy), or the brutal, sudden, and mysterious death of a Haven Guardsman. At this point, the deaths of these guards are occurring infrequently enough not to arouse serious suspicion, much to Torunn's relief. Torunn and Mikkel II have their first child, a girl named Lilianna, and for a short while, their lives are perfect and joyful. *** As months pass, Torunn begins to notice a disturbing pattern: every time Lilianna falls ill with even a small sniffle, Haven Guardsmen begin dropping dead in the streets in alarming numbers, as if her new oath-curse was straining to protect both living Deadmen. Torunn had hoped that somehow her mage blood in Lilianna would weaken the effects of the curse on her, but the curse persists. As she is in her study furiously debating about how to fix this new problem, the large stained-glass window of Mikkel II's throne room is shattered by the massive hurtling frame of a "man" known as Joe Scalleta. Joe Scalleta, as part of an ongoing and unplanned rampage, murders the King in cold blood along with several of his attendants. Joe Scalleta is apprehended and sentenced to death, but manages to escape from his cell via a tunnel dug by the strange half-bulette mercenary known only as Chompski. Haven is devastated, but the rate of dying Guardsmen decreases and Torunn focuses on raising Lilianna while still in shock and mourning over the death of Mikkel II. * 15 HE ** As Lilianna is still too young to rule, a regency council reigns in her stead. Normally, Torunn would be on this council or be Queen herself, but she has stepped back from politics in order to care for and protect Lilianna, still constantly worried about the potential implications of her curse. This mild power void allows an agent for a chaos god organization known as The Corporation to make it onto the regency council. The Corporation leverages the power afforded by this position to facilitate the trafficking of a mind-controlling drug into Haven, seeking to enslave its inhabitants to turn them against The Guild, their most hated enemies. However, before they can fully launch their operation, their secret cave base at the base of the western Winterpeaks is discovered by Dalek and Chompski. The Corporation agents in this lair are killed, their supply of drug is burned, and written plans are discovered which implicate the whole regency council as being involved in the plot as a result of already being mind-controlled. Not wanting to wait and allow the evil plot to progress, Chompski, Dalek, and their fellow adventurers sneak into the royal palace, rig it with explosives, and blow the entire structure sky high. * 20 HE ** The Iron Helix Syndicate, while adventuring in the Great Forest to the south of Haven, accidentally stumble upon the temple of Autumno in a ruin-filled stretch of woodland that was once the ancient owlbear city of Omphalos. They manage to break into the vast hibernal chamber and discover endless rows of structures resembling stacks of stone coffins. Upon opening one of these coffins, the owlbear inside awakens, filled with the blind rage that had been placed in them by Oorn, the chaos god that had manipulated the owlbears into hibernation so many thousands of years in the past. The shrieks and shrill cackling emitted by this owlbear cause the neighboring owlbears to begin to awaken, and soon as the cacophony spreads the entire chamber begins to awaken. The Iron Helix Syndicate flees as a tide of violent owlbears pursues them back toward Haven. *** The conflict that followed this mass awakening is known as the Great Owlbear War. As the wave of owlbears crashed against Haven's walls, the forces of the Haven Guard would be summoned from every corner of the city to push back the tide at the southern gates. These gates would soon fall, and many of Haven's southernmost neighborhoods quickly became hellish warzones as the Guard fought desperately to slow the owlbears' advance, but it looked to be a losing battle. *** Despite their complicated relationship with the city of Haven, the Iron Helix Syndicate were troubled at the thought of losing their home to these ravenous owlbears. On the second day of the conflict, they contacted The Guild to seek military aid. While the request was dismissed or rejected by several senior Guild members who believed their organization had already intervened far too much in the city of Haven's affairs, Master Whittington overruled them and made the executive decision to deploy all of the Guild forces stationed in the area. This included several hundred of the Guild's elite mercenaries and advanced war machines on the ground, as well as a fleet of airships providing fire support from above. **** Two notable Guild weapons that were highly influential in securing a quick and decisive victory were the experimental war machine known as the Landbreaker, ''as well as Master Whittington's personal airship, the ''Halcyon. **** The Iron Helix Syndicate played a key role in the combat as well, using their combat abilities to clear the way for key Guild teams. *** The third day of fighting ended with the conclusion of the war, with Haven and The Guild securing a decisive but costly victory. Over 90% of the Haven Guard was lost in the conflict, along with the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians living in or near south Haven. No Guild lives were lost though many of their mercenaries were severely wounded. Much of south Haven was destroyed, as well as vast swathes of the northernmost reaches of the Great Forest. The voyage of the Landbreaker ''from the Ukrat Sea to the site of the conflict also permanently scarred the landscape, with a new river being etched into the Northland's terrain. On the owlbears' side, over 95% of their population was slain in the fighting. The few remaining owlbears are those that managed to break free of Oorn's hold and surrender. *** The owlbear surrender was accepted by both Haven and The Guild. The Guild, through their most advanced scholars and mages, translated for the owlbears during the peace talks. They oversaw the creation of a peace agreement which allowed the owlbears to settle a small area of land to the south of Haven, where they would be free to live as they pleased as long as they did so under the supervision of Haven and contributed labor to the rebuilding of Haven. Haven was assigned the responsibility to assist the owlbears in settling their new home and to familiarize them with the modern world. * '''23 HE' ** In the depths of the Great Forest, an adventuring hellfire knight and Eye of Gruumsh stumble upon a small, isolated human village and begin engaging in cruel and depraved acts of slaughter, committing unspeakable acts of violence against the villagers. In an astonishing feat of proselytism, these murderers successfully recruit the rest of the village to the worship of their evil gods. Blood-soaked stone monuments to the gods Erythnul and Gruumsh are erected in the town square, and weekly mutilation and sacrifice become a tradition for the villagers. This area becomes known as The Village of Pain and Suffering, though for most of its time in existence it will go largely unknown to the outside world as nearly every visitor is horrifically dismembered. * 25 HE ** After a remarkably short period of recovery from the Great Owlbear War, the borders of Haven continue to expand ever outward. Eventually, the western border of Haven arrives at the territory of the arachne, an ancient race who had made the western and northwestern portions of the Great Forest their home for thousands of years. Unbeknownst to the humans of Haven, the arachne had been observing their city for years at this point, in some cases even stealthily infiltrating to more closely study Haven's customs and technology. In this short period of time the arachne had learned a great deal, and had transitioned from a highly sophisticated but tribal society into one very similar to Haven. While many arachne contemplated resisting the expansion of Haven into their ancestral lands, they were wise enough to understand what might happen to them; they had watched the events of the Great Owlbear War unfold, and did not wish to suffer the same fate as their old enemies, the owlbears. And so, though the humans of Haven were disturbed by their spider-like traits and their eerily well-mannered and polite demeanor, the arachne and their settlements would be gradually integrated and assimilated into Haven. * 27 HE ** A detachment of explorers from the Iron Helix Syndicate makes landfall on the time-lost island of Inismona and makes an attempt to explore the island interior. On their journey, they encounter and do battle with a number of increasingly strange and dangerous species, most of which appear to be varying degrees of sentient. In one encounter, they discover that they are not the only group of adventurers present on the island; when scouting a vast valley in the northern part of the island, they come upon a bizarre group of adventurers known as the Ravensturm bathing in the pulsing sound and dazzling lights of a living crystal mountain god in what seems for them to be a weeks-long celebration. Unfortunately, the Iron Helix Syndicate are not able to progress significantly farther northward than this valley due to the presence of a dense, toxic fog that nearly claims all of their lives. Turning back, they head for the safety of Haven. * 30 HE ** Explorers from Haven, along with the Iron Helix Syndicate, arrive on the continent of Gerrim. Shortly after arrival, they travel to Gerrim City and discover the society of elementals living there. Category:History Category:Lore